Bennelong electorate guide: Federal election 2025 candidates, results and margin

Labor’s Jerome Laxale is looking to hold on to the extremely marginal seat of Bennelong, once held by Prime Minister John Howard, in Sydney’s lower north shore.

Mr Laxale won the seat in 2022 with a margin of one per cent but a redistribution has left the seat notionally Liberal held on a razor-thin margin of 0.04 per cent.

The abolition of the North Sydney electorate has meant Bennelong has shifted east, losing Ermington, Carlingford and Epping and gained the Hunters Hill and Lane Cove council areas.

Mr Laxale became just the second Labor MP to hold the seat last election. Labor also won the seat for one term when former ABC journalist Maxine McKew unseated sitting PM John Howard in the 2007 election.

Mr Laxame has publicly called for the Labor government to do more on gambling advertising, saying he was “sick of seeing betting odds linked to live sport”.

The main challenger for the seat is the Liberal party’s Scott Yung, who ran in the 2019 NSW State election for the seat of Kogarah.

Mr Yung has been in hot water this campaign after questions over endorsements he received from Chinese celebrities in his 2019 State run.

He has also been criticised for handing out Easter eggs outside of a primary school which prompted complaints from staff and parents.

Bennelong has a large Chinese popualtion with 28.8 per cent of residents having Chinese heritage and 17 per cent were born in either mainland China or Hong Kong.

Politicians in the seat have reportedly been using popular Chinese social media apps like RedNote and WeChat to reach their constituents.